Cabrillo Boys’ Water Polo Falls In First CIF Semifinal

The best season in Cabrillo boys’ water polo history came to an end on Wednesday night at Belmont Outdoor Pool where the Jaguars lost to Cathedral 13-8 in the CIF Southern Section Division 7 semifinals. It is the first time that any Cabrillo sports team has reached a CIF semifinal.

“This is a family and we’ll never forget this season,” Cabrillo coach Lawrence Durnad said. “We played one of our best first halves of the season tonight, but Cathedral had more experienced players in this situation and our warriors couldn’t pull us though.”

Cabrillo (15-9) led 5-3 in the middle of the second quarter, and were outscored 10-3 from that point on because of careless turnovers and a opportunistic attack from Cathedral.

Angel Ortiz led Cabrillo with four goals, and Steven Hernandez added two scores. Team captains Cory Thompson and Noe Villalon also had one goal each, while goalkeeper Nathan Lucindo finished with nine saves.

Cathedral (16-9) was led by Anthony Vargas’ four goals. Daniel Hernandez added a hat trick, and Angel Rosas had two scores.

Cabrillo took a 5-3 and a 6-4 lead in the second quarter, but Cathedral scored the last two goals of the half to pull even at the break. The Jaguars scored in the opening minutes of the second half, but would only score once more while the Phantoms built momentum for their comeback. Cathedral forced four consecutive turnovers in the third quarter, and took the lead for good at the other end.

The seminal was played at Belmont Outdoor Pool because Cathedral, the home team, couldn’t secure a pool to host the match. It is also the first time Cabrillo has ever played a non-league game at the Belmont.

JJ Fiddler is an award-winning sportswriter and videographer who has been covering Southern California sports for multiple newspapers and websites since 2004. After attending Long Beach State and creating the first full sports page at the Union Weekly Newspaper, he has been exclusively covering Long Beach prep sports since 2007.

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